If you’re desperate to get by on fewer hours of sleep, polyphasic sleep (a.k.a. the Uberman’s sleep schedule) may be the answer! Basically, you do weird things to your sleep schedule and practices to maximize REM sleep.
Unfortunately, all the bloggers who were going to test polyphasic sleep on themselves seem to have quit the blogosphere in 2002. I hope they didn’t die… someone suggested that they were recruited by the NSA to train agents, but I think they were snuffed because they were getting too close to the secrets of the Illuminati 😉 At any rate, this seems to imply that the sleep schedule was not practical, if 4 bloggers couldn’t maintain it with each other’s support and the eyes of the community watching them.
It is probably not terribly practical in the long run- the other sleep states have functions, so while you don’t show cognitive deficits if you don’t get them, you will have a harder time keeping a healthy immune system and recuperating from muscle fatigue.
I would love to move to a more attuned sleep schedule- some people swear that they’re naturally on a 26-hour schedule, for instance. Also, sometimes people refuse to wake up when their bodies tell them to, and refuse to sleep when their bodies tell them to, just because they need to keep a more steady schedule. Unfortunately it’s very hard to find a lifestyle that allows people to stay attuned.
I was just talking about this with my friends yesterday. weird.
Sounds dangerous. Hmmm, more time. I am intreagued. Who needs sleep anyhow?